For utilities, municipalities, or similar significant operational entities, operation and maintenance of working components (e.g., light fixtures, pumps, and other machinery) is a significant concern. Often, individuals or entities responsible for the operation and maintenance of such working components are responsible for a vast number of units spread over a large area. Such individuals or entities may find it necessary to, or may wish to operate and manage these working components from one or more remote locations, sending maintenance crews to the working components only as certain events occur. Indeed, operation and management from a single remote location is often the most cost-effective manner in which to operate, verify, control, and configure working components.
One of the best examples of the need for remote operation and management of working components can be found in the maintenance and operation of exterior lighting. Extensive lighting systems are found not only on city streets and highway interchanges, but also on college campuses, around commercial and industrial centers, in public and private parks and amusement centers, and any other locations where the safety of people and property is a significant concern. Exorbitant amounts of monetary and human resources are expended in operating and maintaining these lighting systems, many of which include light fixtures that are spread over large geographical areas. Generally, operations and/or maintenance personnel must be physically present to verify the proper operation and function of the fixtures. However, primarily for safety reasons, it is important to ensure that these lighting systems are operational.
In the prior art, there are various systems and methods that have been designed to remotely monitor and control lighting systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,266 issued to Williams et al., and assigned to A.L. Air Data, Inc. of Los Angeles, Calif., describes one such prior art system and method. U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,266 (“the '266 patent”) is incorporated herein by this reference.
The '266 patent describes in detail the development of outdoor lighting systems, specifically street lamps. As such, a common mercury-vapor street lamp is described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. Furthermore, the '266 patent recognizes that the operation and maintenance of street lamps consists of two primary tasks: monitoring and control. As such, the system and method described and claimed in the '266 patent addresses these primary tasks. Specifically, the described lamp monitoring and control system and method includes lamp monitoring and control units which are secured to each lamp in a monitored area. Each such lamp monitoring and control unit is comprised of a processing and sensing unit, a transmit (TX) unit, and a receive (RX) unit. In practice, the TX unit is used to transmit monitoring data, the RX unit is used to receive control information, and the processing and sensing unit carries out the switching or other operation of the lamp.
Signals transmitted from the lamp via the TX unit are received at a base station which includes an antenna and receiving system, along with a computing system. Signals received at the base station are passed to the computing system which processes the signals to extract data, specifically the identification of the particular lamp from which each signal was transmitted and data related to the operation and function of the particular lamp, i.e., the status of the lamp. In this regard, signal transmission is preferably accomplished through radio frequency transmissions in the range of 218–219 MHz. Furthermore, the signals have a specific data packet format consisting of a start field, an identification (“ID”) field, a status field, a data field, and a stop field. The start field indicates the start of the data packet, the ID field identifies the lamp from which the data packet was transmitted, the status field indicates the status of monitoring and control unit, the data field includes any data associated with the indicated status, and the stop field indicates the end of the data packet.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,076, also issued to Williams et al., and assigned to A.L. Air Data, Inc. of Los Angeles, Calif., describes a unit and method for remotely monitoring and controlling outdoor lighting systems. U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,076 (“the '076 patent”) is also incorporated herein by this reference. The '076 patent describes a system very similar to that describes above with reference to the '266 patent, the primary improvement described in the '076 patent being the incorporation of a sensing element in each lamp monitoring and control unit to sense at least one lamp parameter.
Although U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,035,266 and 6,119,076 (collectively, the “A.L. Air Data Patents”) generally provide for remote monitoring and control of street lamps in a lighting system, there are some significant problems in implementation. First and foremost, the preferred systems and methods of the A.L. Air Data Patents require that each lamp monitoring and control unit communicate directly with a base station, i.e., all transmitted signals must reach the base station directly. As such, signal transmission is accomplished through radio frequency transmissions in the range of 218–219 MHz. This is a licensed frequency band that is used for “Interactive Video and Data” and is thus labeled the “IVDS” band. By operating in the IVDS band, transmission of data over long distances can be accomplished. Such long-distance transmission, however, involves significant power consumption in the lamp monitoring and control units, thereby creating a significant expense.
Secondly, signals transmitted in the IVDS band may be blocked or inhibited by large objects, such as buildings. In this regard, the A.L. Air Data Patents contain no provision for alternate routing of transmitted signals when such blocking occurs.
It is thus a paramount object of the present invention to provide an improved method and system for transmitting, receiving, and collecting information related to a plurality of working components, such a street lamps, a method and system that overcomes the problems associated with prior art designs.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for transmitting, receiving, and collecting information related to a plurality of working components that has an structure that substantially reduces the distances over which radio communications are transmitted, yet can be implemented over a large geographical area.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for transmitting, receiving, and collecting information related to a plurality of working components that allows for multiple and alternative paths for radio communications.
It is still a further object of the present invention to substantially eliminate the necessity of periodic and/or random physical visits to working components to verify their proper function and operation.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide operations and maintenance personnel with the information necessary to detect and correct a problem with a working component without the necessity of multiple visits to determine the cause of a detected problem.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide operations and maintenance personnel with the precise location of a working component that needs repair or attention.
It is still a further object of the present invention to efficiently deploy operations and maintenance personnel to address maintenance concerns associated with a plurality of working components in a prioritized manner.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide continuous reporting of working component failure conditions.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide for both remote and programmable command and control of working components.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide for remote monitoring and tracking of the performance of working components to gain an improved understanding of developing trends.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon a reading of the following description.